Animal Well

Play it on: PlayStation 5 (on PS Plus), Switch, PC

Current goal: Find my last egg

Buy it from: Steam

Out this week, the inventive lo-fi Metroidvania Animal Well earned an extremely glowing review from yours truly. And despite completing the game, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of its deepest mysteries. There are effectively three layers to the 2D side-scroller. The first is finishing the main campaign. The second is collecting all 64 eggs. And after that, well, there’s bunnies to find, instructions to print out, and a wild community puzzle to crowdsource the solution for. Solo developer Billy Basso says he he thinks there are puzzles so random in the game that some players won’t even discover them, let alone figure them out, for possibly years to come

Even aside from the pull of uncovering its secrets, however, there’s something so rich and rewarding about wandering through Animal Well’s creepy underground labyrinth that I’m genuinely enjoying patiently combing back through each room for any little details I missed that might reveal the hidden locations of those last few eggs I’m missing. Games this special don’t come along often, and I’m content to take my time with its dense post-game. — Ethan Gach